NGO gets K830 million for climate change

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

A Norwegian government has granted Lake Chilwa Basin (LCB) Climate Change Adaptation Programme, a local non-governmental organization dealing in issues of climate change, a grant totalling US$5.4 million (about K830 million) to help the organization fight effects of climate change.

The programme, which will run for five years, will be jointly implemented by Leadership for Environment and Development Southern & Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA) based at Chancellor College, WorldFish Centre (WFC) and Forestry Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM).

LCB Programme Manager, Welton Phalira, said in an interview on Tuesday the programme, which has already taken off, is being implemented in ten selected hotspots in the Lake Chilwa Basin, in collaboration with the three district councils of Machinga, Phalombe and Zomba.

“The primary beneficiaries of the programme are local communities dwelling in selected villages within the hotspots,” said Phalira.
It is also expected that local and district institutions dealing in environment and natural resources management will benefit from capacity building programmes LCB will provide.

“The Programme will also support partner institutions with resources to enhance their capacity to deliver essential services to the communities so as to enhance their resilience and adaptation to climate change. LEAD SEA is coordinating implementation of the Programme while funding is being provided by the Norwegian Government through the Norwegian Embassy to Malawi,” Phalira explained.

In the next five years, LCB Climate Change Adaptation Programmes shall strive to secure the livelihood of 1.5 million people in the Lake Chilwa Basin and enhance resilience of their natural resource base.  This will be achieved through development and implementation of basin-wide climate change adaptations in support of the Malawi National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) to enhance the capacity of communities to adopt sustainable livelihood and natural resource management practices.

Among other things, the Programme will endeavour to strengthen local and district institutions to better manage natural resources and build resilience to climate change; facilitate cross-basin and cross-sector natural resource management and planning for climate change throughout the Basin; improve household and enterprise adaptive capacity in basin hotspots; and promote mitigation of the effects of climate change through improved forest management and governance, according to Phalira.
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